Electrical Porsches roam Copenhagen streets during COP15

Tuesday, 10 November 2009 13:17

Engineering conglomerate Siemens is rebuilding three large shiny white petrol-powered Porsche Cayenne cars to run on electricity alone. The climate friendly cars are to roam the streets of Copenhagen during the climate summit.

The cars are being built at a factory outside of Munich in Germany where Siemens has its headquarters. The aim of rebuilding the cars is to demonstrate that electric cars can also come in expensive versions.

“It will be the world’s first electrical driven Porsche Cayenne,” says Anders Troi, head of construction at Siemens Energy at the Danish headquarters, to Danish daily Berlingske Tidende.

The electric motor is a large 200 kW Siemens electric motor which can compete with some of the largest cars. The electric car can run 180 kilometers per charging, and as the three Porsche Cayenne run 100 per cent on electrical power, there is no CO2 emission.

A little slower than a normal car

The climate friendly version of the Porsche Cayenne can go from 0 to 100 km in 10.1 seconds, which is a little slower than a normal petrol-powered Porsche Cayenne. The maximum speed for the electrical car is 150 km. per hour against the normal 230-260 km per hour for the petrol-powered models. The battery in the electric car is a lithium battery with a capacity of 22 kilowatt.

Anders Troi from Siemens cannot yet say when the electric version of the Porsche Cayenne will be on the market, however, it will take at least a couple of years.

In the two weeks of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, two of the cars will be made available for the chief executives from Danish Industry and DONG Energy. The third car will be used for demonstrations for interested parties.

The Cayenne cars can “fuel up” from Siemens charging stations around Copenhagen, and the electricity is delivered by DONG Energy.

Several electric cars on Copenhagen streets

The petrol engine, pump, tank and catalytic converters are removed from each of the three petrol-powered cars and replaced by a battery. All in all it costs Siemens more than 806.000 euro to rebuild the cars.

During the climate summit, a line of other climate friendly cars, like small electric cars, will be driving around Copenhagen as well. Around 80 limousines from, among others, Mercedes, Volvo and BMW will be driving leading politicians around Copenhagen. Here you will find everything from hybrid and hydrogen cars to flexifuel cars, writes Berlingske Tidende.

Danish energy supplier Energinet.dk believes that within the next two to four years, 100,000 electric cars will be running the streets of Denmark. Tesla and Nissan count on having the electric cars ready for sales in 2011.

Source: Berlingske Tidende, Denmark.